Tokyo Ghoul AU!
by LuneOfTheMoon
Summary: A re imagining the world of tokyo ghoul
1. Chapter 1

Ghoul investigators, such as Amon, Aura, Houji, and Arima, were Kaneki's heroes. However, through his idolization of said heroes, he became their very enemy. Kaneki's heavy breath wakes him, instantly he notices the large metal straps confining him to a surgery table. A fat and ugly man with a scarred face stood beside the table, wearing a gigantic white lab coat. The man took a drill, laughing as he stuck it into his flesh and implanted nails into Kaneki.

"No… No!" Kaneki yelled, squirming and seizing in a desperate attempt to flail out of the straps. Alas, to no avail.

Days become night, and nights become day, until finally an entire week has passed.

"Where am I…?" Kaneki asks as he wakes once more. His heart raced at the speed of a wild stallion.

"Kaneki Ken… such beautiful alliteration to your name. It's a shame that yesterday, you were found dead. The news say you jumped 10 stories, committing suicide. Yet not a single note, not a message, not an ideal. Not even a sign that you ever existed! When asked, not a single family member even knew your name."

"Where am I?!" Kaneki yells with a dark and raspy voice, the straps clinking and rattling against his back.

The man in the lab coat kneeled down toward his ear and chuckled.

"This is the afterlife, Kaneki. I am your ruler. I am your God. I am Doctor Kanou."

Kaneki growls.

"So desperate to live, despite your slow and merciless death pending every minute. Resist it. Resist your humanity."

"No!"

"Take my hand. Allow yourself to be reborn, not as the man you once were, not as an angel, but as the plague to society known as ghouls!"

Kanou injects a syringe full of venom into Kaneki. It was done. The surgery was complete. As the venom swam through his bloodstream, Kaneki's vision and life began to fade. The world before him, vanishing into nothing. Yet, in the darkness, a small shimmer of light sounds. Slowly, this light duplicates, until all that was gone was rebuilt piece by piece, into a time of the past.

"I'll have an expressio." Kaneki said as he entered a nearly empty coffee shop at the corner of 21st street.

"Coming right up!" The young female worker, Touka said.

He sat down at a coffee table, humming happily as he awaited the arrival of his date. The shop was practically empty, other than the elderly store owner. Touka, and Kaneki of course . Kaneki took a sip of his coffee.

"I wonder where she is." He thinks to himself, watching a soap opera on the television.

"Just an hour ago, the 20th ward was attacked by three ghouls. One wearing a skeleton mask, was captured by CCG members, however the rest are said to still be roaming the 20th ward. The only other ghoul identified is said to be wearing what looked like a cross between a trench coat and a lab coat, but that's all we know. If you live in this area, we recommend you evacuate immediately. Back to you, Jim." The news reporter said.

Coffee splashes onto the table, Kaneki's hand trembling wet as his eyes lock with the television.

"What's wrong, Sonny?!" The old man worried.

"My girlfriend… she lives in the 20th ward! I don't know what to do."

"There's nothing to be scared of, kid. I bet money she's already evacuated."

"I pray…"

His phone began to buzz. Kaneki took it out of his pocket and answered.

"Kaneki." Rize whispers into the phone.

"Rize, are you alright?!"

"No, Kaneki. No. Please, just know that I love you!" Rize said.

"Who the fuck is that?!" An intimidating voice says in the background.

"It's- it's my boyfriend!"

Rize struggles to keep the phone, the phone falling as you could hear her pained howl.

"Listen, little punk. If you want your precious girl here to leave the 20th ward unharmed, I suggest you come here within… hm… 10 minutes. A second later, and who knows what'll happen?"

Kaneki leaped out of his chair, dashed into his car and speeding through the city. He arrived at the 20th ward a couple minutes early.

Blood was splattered all over the streets and the walls. The speed of his breath increasing tremendously. A red arm of flame ignites from the sky, the shadow of a lab coat soaring across the road as the red flame smashed into Kaneki's car. Kaneki opens the door, leaping onto the concrete. Flesh on his cheek scrapes off like paint on a wall.

As Kaneki rolls onto his stomach and stands on his feet, he's confronted by a masked man wearing a white lab coat. In one hand, he strangles Rize, who is easily overpowered. In the other, his arm is extended, the red flame crawling into his back.

"I wonder which one of you I should experiment on first." The masked ghoul holding Rize said.

"Let her go!"

"Why should I?"

"If you don't," Kaneki unsheathed a gun from his pocket and clocked it "I'll kill you."

The ghoul bites Rize's neck in a split second, leaping away after stealing her energy.

"Rize!" Kaneki says, rushing to Rize's side.

"Kaneki.. Forget me. There's a child on the top floor of the apartment complex. He's bleeding out, you have to save him!"

"But what about you?"

"I don't matter right now, Kaneki! Save him!"

Kaneki shakes his head, climbing up the stairs to the top apartment and wiggling the doorknob.

"Locked." He says.

"Help me!" The child inside screams.

"The doors locked, I can't get in!"

"I don't want to die." The child inside cries. 

He takes a step back. Boom. With a single kick, the door collapses. Inside, a young girl with a huge wound on her arm screams.

"It's OK, It's ok!" Kaneki says, removing his shirt and putting it around the wound, then applying pressure. The child screams louder the more pressure he applies, but he realizes she'll have to tough it out.

Rize enters the room.

"Rize, you're feeling better?"

"Y-yeah!" 

"Call 911. We need to get this kid to a hospital."

Kaneki continued to apply pressure to the child's wound, until eventually, Rize began to giggle.

"Kaneki… I don't feel so good." She laughed, her eyes glowing dark red.

"No… No, no, no!" Kaneki says, pushing the child as far away as he could in the split second he had.

Rize tackles Kaneki into the glass window, the window shattering into shards of glass.

"Why did you have to become a ghoul?" Kaneki says as he falls to the ground, splattering into a blood stain on the concrete.

"Kaneki Ken… such beautiful alliteration to your name. It's a shame that yesterday, you were found dead. The news say you jumped 10 stories, committing suicide. Yet not a single note, not a message, not an ideal. Not even a sign that you ever existed! When asked, not a single family member even knew your name."

"Where am I?!" Kaneki yells with a dark and raspy voice, the straps clinking and rattling against his back.

The man in the lab coat kneeled down toward his ear and chuckled.

"This is the afterlife, Kaneki. I am your ruler. I am your God. I am Doctor Kanou."

Kaneki growls.

"So desperate to live, despite your slow and merciless death pending every minute. Resist it. Resist your humanity."

"No!"

"Take my hand. Allow yourself to be reborn, not as the man you once were, not as an angel, but as the plague to society known as ghouls!"

"I'll become a ghoul," Kaneki says "But not by your will. By my failure to save the one person I loved… I shall become what I hate most as punishment."

Red arms made of flame begin to sprout from Kaneki's back. It grabs Doctor Kanou by the neck, throwing him into the nearest wall. Kaneki burns away the metal straps keeping him down, looking over at the dirty hoodie and jeans to his side. What he wore before all of this mess started. He strips himself bare of his hospital gown, looking over at the dead body of Doctor Kanou and sighing before clothing himself.

-A year later-

Kaneki's phone buzzed in his pants pocket. He picks it up, but instantly sheaths it back as he finds another text from Hide, his college roommate. "You just disappeared one day," The text read. "Please, come back. I miss you." He was such an idiot. Anyone who leaves for this long isn't coming back.

Kaneki was dead, at least, to himself he was. Kaneki reaches behind himself and flips his hoodie onto his head, walking slowly over to the coffee shop where everything began.

"One cappuccino" He said as he entered the building.

"Coming right up" The old shop keeper said, with Touka nowhere to be found.


	2. Eyepatch

Kaneki sits within a subway, looking down at his thin body as he held onto the strap that kept him up. His skin pale, and his blue veins quivering. Who am I, he thought to himself. Because he wasn't Kaneki anymore. He had lost who he once was.

What am I, he thinks-day descending into dawn. A woman holds a newborn baby, struggling to escape from Kaneki. Eventually, she and her child were disintegrated by the arm of flame that leapt from Kaneki's back. Kaneki ate the remains while sobbing.

When did I truly change, he ponders, sitting at his desk and sketching down a detailed drawing of a half skeleton mask with an eyepatch and nails coming out of the Halloween, he was going to dress up as either a skeleton, or frankenstein- so why not make his new identity a mix of the two? Besides, As a ghoul, everyday is practically Halloween. The rest of his life will be spent deceiving and feasting on humans; trick or treating.

The day he died may have been the day he physically changed. But that day was not where everything went wrong. No, everything went to shit from day one, from birth he was no longer truly free, truly human. Kaneki walks out of a mask shop, holding the half skeleton mask identical to the one in his notebook.

Kaneki wall jumps within an alleyway, making his way to the top of a building and placing his mask on his head. Kaneki stares down at the city of Tokyo, from flashing lights to racing cars on the highway. From this moment forward, Kaneki had finally accepted who he was. He had accepted that he was a-

"Ghoul. A symbiotic organism created artificially from the genes of the dead mixed with the genes of a scientific accident known as the kagune. Kagune are organic flame that only Ghouls can spawn. Theoretically, if a Kagune is implanted into the dead, they'd become a ghoul, and can only continue living by feasting on the remains of other corpses. However, this is no more than a theory, of course. Furthermore-" The teacher spoke at the front of a classroom.

"Mr! I have to go to the restroom!" A blonde with scruffy hair that looked like someone rubbed their hand with it, wearing a contrasting yellow jacket and red headphones, said as he raised his hand.

"Very well, Hide. Be quick." The teacher replied.

As Hide walked to the back of the classroom, he approached Kaneki and smiled.

"Welcome back to school, K….."

He mouthed the word Kaneki. For some reason, this word was inaudible to Kaneki's ears. Instead of Kaneki, he heard his true name. His ghoul name.

Eyepatch.


	3. Homework

It was ten years ago. Kaneki's mother was beating on him, as usual, as a way to deal with the stress from work. At work, coworkers would verbally abuse or molest her, however she couldn't quit, as being arrested once has made it too difficult for her to sustain a well paying job.

Punch after punch collided with Kaneki's face. She complained about him failing to complete schoolwork, but he knew it was really her outlet for her horrible job.

"Why can't you be perfect?! Why can't you do anything right?!"She screamed.

Kaneki had no response. He simply let the bruises pile up, the scars inflict. Eventually, his mother would see the damage she'd done, stop, and begin to bawl her eyes out at the monster she'd become. Despite the physical abuse, Kaneki would comfort her as she cried.

"Everyone who did their essay on how ghouls have changed Japanese society, please turn it into the turn in basket." The teacher says.

People muttered amongst each other.

"Did you do yours?" A female voice asked within the muttering.

"I totally forgot!" A male replied.

After talking for a bit, it was more than obvious next to no one completed their work.

"Seriously? No one did it? Well, that's your grade dropping- not mine." The teacher added.

Kaneki's hand darted up into the air faster than a bolt of lightning could strike.

"Yes, Kaneki?" The teacher asked.

"Mine is finished."

"Did you make sure to follow everything on the rubric?"

"Everything is perfect." He replied, remembering how his mother would beat him if he failed to do his work perfectly.

"V-very well! N-now anyways class, today we're going to talk about-" The teacher rushed to finish his words.


	4. Chapter 4

School was absolutely dreadful for Kaneki. Being reminded of his mother ruined his entire day. He'll never forget the day that he stood next to her grave, gripping tightly onto the teddy bear in his arms, crying of both sadness and happiness. He hated her dearly, yet didn't want her to leave him alone. He honestly loved her.

In the present day, Kaneki spoke to a girl with shoulder length red hair and a baggy hoodie with sleeves that covered her hands and a huge hood that covered half of her eyes. Despite asking her name, she refused to respond and went back to the subject of the homework.

"And that's about all you need to know for the essay..." Kaneki says.

"You're amazing dude! You totally explained that way better than the teacher did. Thanks a bunch. Any chance I could ask you to come to my house? I've still got a few questions about the homework!"

"Your house?! Is that really necessary? I mean, I'd understand if I was an actual tutor or something, but I barely know you."

"Come on, please?"

"Fine" The word came out as an annoyed groan.

"So your names Kaneki Ken, huh...?" She asked as the two walked away from campus toward the 20th ward. Obviously, they weren't actually going to go there. Just nearby.

"Yeah... I get compliments on the alliteration in my name, haha..." Kaneki laughed, shivering from the thought of Doctor Kanou standing next to him while he was strapped to a bed.

"Really? You don't look too pleased about it."

"Oh, it's just because of a little bit of bullying here and it, that's all."

"Ah, I see..."

It was silent for a moment. However, eventually, a lightbulb lit up in her head.

"Hey, wanna go ghoul hunting with me?!" She asked..

"Wait, WHAT?! Ghoul hunting? Are you suicidal?"

"I've killed a couple before!"

"You?!"

"Yep... in fact, right now I'm looking for this scary looking one with a combination of a skeletal mask and eyepatch. The news won't stop talking about him! Legend says he hides in alleyways and eats girls he's seduced, like a vampire or something!"

Kaneki winces.

"Are you sure you want to do this? I know you got lucky a couple times, but unless you're a CCG member, you can't underestimate ghouls. There are stronger ones than the one you've killed, guaranteed" Kaneki says. The sun began to set. A fade between dark blue and yellow streamed across the sky.

She turned her back to Kaneki and removed her backpack. She unzipped it, unsheathing a cute white bunny mask.

"You're right, you know! But the thrill of mystery just motivates me. It could be anyone behind that mask! Maybe even you?"

"Have you seen me? My arms are smaller than twigs. I'm pretty sure if I was a ghoul I'd be more than dead by now."

"Catch." She said as she tossed a baseball bat at Kaneki head. Before he could move my arms up to catch it, metal collided with bone, smacking Kaneki right in the middle of his forehead.

After adjusting to his headache, Kaneki asks, "What are you giving me this fo-"

"Quiet!" She snapped.

The sound of laughing echoed throughout the alleyway. Despite the sun only setting a few minutes ago, it was now pitch black. The laughing continued, and as it did it grew louder, closer, stronger. It became more obvious that it was a female laughing. The girl Kaneki spoke with, who never mentioned her name, unsheathed a second baseball bat out of her backpack and gripped it firmly.

"Ka-ne-ki Ken! Guess who!" Rize said, caressing Kaneki's face.

"Rize?!" Kaneki gasped, Rize's hands moving down to his neck, strangling him from behind.

"Let him go!" Yelled the nameless girl wearing the bunny mask as she pointed the baseball bat in her hands toward the two.

"Who the hell are you? I'm not listening to some little girl." Rize hissed.

"That wasn't a request," The girl twirled her baseball bat around and said "It was a warning."

Rize quickly stuck her teeth into Kaneki's neck, stealing blood and sipping it up before he could even scream. As Kaneki drops to his knees and attempted to collect himself, the masked girl twirled into the air, flipping above the two and landing as she pulled her bat back and swung it with all her might.

Rize slammed into a wall, the wall making a crater where she landed. Her Kagune unsheathed, shaped in the form of a scythe.

"I'll kill you!" She shrieked, still not having slid down from the middle of the wall.

As she began to fall down, the masked girl darted toward her, slamming her baseball bat into Rize's stomach. Rize's Kagune became thinner and wiggled rapidly in response to the pain. Rize spit up blood as she was pinned back onto the wall. Rize was hit twice more by the steel bat, each time more and more blood flooding out of Rize's mouth.

"No, stop!" Kaneki shouted.

The masked girl looked back, still applying pressure to the bat, and tilted her head in confusion.

"What the hell's wrong with you? Why would I stop?!"

"That ghoul... She's someone I know!"

"Seriously? She's a reincarnated type, huh! Just let me knock her out, I won't kill her."

"No. Please don't hurt her. Anything but that, please!"

"How else am I going to-"

Rize's held her right hand in the air, her nails growing into claws.

Kaneki leaped from where he was as he saw Rize slash her hand downward. Kaneki pushed the masked girl away from Rize. Rize's claws slashed Kaneki's right eye open. Bloody bits of eyeball drooping onto the ground. Rolling on the ground and screeching, Kaneki holds his hand over his damaged right eye.

Funny, he thought to himself. It happened on the same eye he made his masks' eye-patch on.

Kaneki woke up being carried on the back of the girl who wore the bunny mask. He had not yet asked her of her name, so he decided to simply call her Rabbit. Unlike when they went ghoul hunting, she was not wearing her mask. Kaneki yawned, stretching one of his arms and hanging on to her back with the other.

"It's morning... What happened after I passed out?" He asked.

"Let me start with the questions, alright? Why didn't you use your kagune back there? We would've had a much better chance if at least one of us used or ghoul forms."

"Kagune?! W-what are you talking about? You mean those things ghoul's have?"

"Drop the act, it's so obvious, Kaneki! You fit the description of the Masked Pervert perfectly, capturing you was a walk in the park."

"Masked Pervert?! Why can't you just call me Eyepatch!"

"Aha, so you are Eyepatch!"

"I- wh- damn it!"

Rabbit laughed heartily.

"Anyways, you said capturing. Are you part of the CCG?" Kaneki asked.

"No. I'm actually a ghoul too-y'know! A reincarnate type, just like you. We at the 20th Ward are renowned for our peace. When a ghoul thinks it's a good idea to feed on non-suicide types in our ward, we capture them and leave them for the CCG to deal with."

"Oh I see. That's a relief, actually."

"Mhm!-"

"Another thing I wonder is, what is a reincarnate type? You've said it twice now. I thought all ghouls were just... yeah, ghouls."

"Remember the theory that you can implant a kagune into a dead person? The procedure is a bit more complicated than that, but a reincarnate type is a ghoul that was originally human. They were killed, but their organs were replaced by a ghouls. Most ghouls are not reincarnate types."

"Is that so? How are other ghouls made?"

"I'm too lazy to explain, go find some book or something at Anteiku."

Anteiku? That was a really odd word, Kaneki thought. Was it some foreign library? Maybe it was Chinese.

"Is this my mask?" Kaneki asked as he felt an eyepatch on his right eye.

"Of course not, dumbass. That's an actual eyepatch! Your eye got cut clean off back there! I had to stop the bleeding myself, too."

"Thank you."

"Thank me? Don't you mean thank you? You lost your eye trying to save me. It kinda was your fault that happened in the first place, but at the same time my fault that it ended up your fault, and wel.. y'know..."

"Yeah, you're welcome." He rolled his one remaining eye.

"So now that you know who I am, where am I going to be captured...? Some prison?"

"That was the plan... but I saw what you did for me back there. You're a good person. So I'll let you keep your freedom AND your life under one condition."

"Condition...?" Was the last sentence he said with so called "Freedom". Flash forward 30 minutes, and he was in a fancy white tiled bathroom, shaving the hairs off his neck and chin. He slipped on a vest and tied a tie to compliment it. Kaneki walked out with an annoyed look on his face.

"Welcome to Anteiku." Kaneki said, practicing the line to greet people to Anteiku, the JAPANESE coffee shop in the 20th ward.

"You look so depressed when you say that, man! Smile, like this!" She said as she gave a forced smile, her mouth wiggling and trying to revert back into a frown, the bags on her eyes drooping menacingly.

"Your smile is way too forced. It's creepier than my mask."


End file.
